Trafficking Solutions Hindered by Lack of Funds in the Great Recession (Series Part 8) | Oakland Local

Published on Friday, May 07, 2010
Last updated on 02:16PM, Friday, May 7, 2010

Photo by Borman818, via Flickr: http://bit.ly/bCy0Tx (CC license)

(Final installment of an eight-part, four-day Oakland Local investigative series on youth sex trafficking. Coming tomorrow: extra features.)

The Oakland Police Department unit dedicated to human trafficking has fluctuated in its staff numbers, frequency of sweeps, and even in access to the equipment needed to conduct intensive operations.

"If we had money to do decoys we could arrest more johns," said Vice Unit Investigator Jim Saleda. "When we do decoys, we get 20 or 40 johns."

There is no consensus among advocates on the best way to provide services to a child who has been exploited for commercial sex...

PREVIOUSLY in this series
COMING MONDAY: Bonus youth trafficking features
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Nonprofits like MISSSEY and the SAGE Project work to rehabilitate girls and bring them into a life of normalcy. Faith-based groups like New Day for Children want to remove them from the area to provide a fresh start. In Oakland and San Francisco, the offices of District Attorneys Nancy O'Malley and Kamala Harris want to reform state laws to remove the loopholes and monetary incentives to sell kids for sex.

Despite these efforts, it remains difficult for cities and counties across a region to coordinate efforts and collaborate on solutions, and law enforcement has barely made a dent in the number of children who are trafficked -- particularly in the Bay Area.

What seems to be missing is how to show exploited youth what a healthy family relationship looks like. Experts say, because many trafficked youth experienced abuse by their parents (or witnessed a parent suffering abuse), they do not understand that abuse is not normal in healthy relationships between adults.

In the absence of a stable family, some say community organizations are vital to providing structure, as well as a productive alternative to drugs, violence and the gang life that surrounds many of these youth in the Bay Area.

Part of CA Assembly Bill 499 allows for the creation of a diversion program that would help create a more family-oriented integration program, said Ursula Dixon, Deputy District Attorney for Alameda County. The program she is designing is slated to begin locally this summer as a pilot program. But though the effort is scheduled to begin in June, it still remains unfunded.

COMING MONDAY: Bonus youth trafficking features...

COMPLETE SERIES INDEX: Youth trafficking in Oakland

This story was produced under a fellowship sponsored by the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, a project of Tides Center.

We also would like to thank Robert Rosenthal and California Watch for their support -- as well as our reporters Barbara Grady and Sarah Terry-Cobo, and photographer Alison Yin -- for their amazing work.

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About Sarah Terry-Cobo
Sarah Terry-Cobo's picture
Sarah is a freelance reporter and a 2009 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Latin American Studies programs. She specializes in science and environmental policy issues, but also has a keen interest in immigration and Latin American affairs. Her work has previously appeared in The Oakland Tribune, Forbes.com and GreenBiz.com. She is currently reporting and blogging for Carbon Watch, a joint venture of the Center for Investigative Reporting and Frontline/World. She researched and wrote the stories in Oakland Local's youth trafficking series with the support of a fellowship from the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism.


Trafficking Solutions Hindered by Lack of Funds in the Great Recession (Series Part 8) | Oakland Local